


aiming

by taykash



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-23 23:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21328348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taykash/pseuds/taykash
Summary: Byleth is better at fixing things than she seems.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	aiming

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't been able to write anything since 2016 so I asked a friend for a prompt just to get something out and into the world. Byleth and Claude (and Dimitri, though he's not here) have taken over my life, but this isn't necessarily a romantic drabble.
> 
> Post-timeskip, no spoilers as long as you know the circumstances of the timeskip.
> 
> Prompt: Mending Fences

Byleth, demigod and the main commander of the Alliance’s army, finds herself standing in front of a collapsed fence on the monastery’s grounds.

It isn’t an unusual sight - Garreg Mach fell over five years ago and they’re still trying to clean up the rubble. Usually she’s far too busy poring over maps and discussing strategy and keeping abreast of Imperial news, but today, everyone else is scattered around. Claude has disappeared to Sothis-only-knows-where, so Byleth has her hands free.

She peers down at the broken fence, her mint-green eyes sweeping across the wreckage. She and Jeralt had mended fences more than once during their travels, often in thanks to villagers who had fed or housed them despite not having much. 

It’s a short fence that barely comes up to her knees around a small patch of what was once flowers. This part of the monastery was never one of the livelier areas and Byleth only has fuzzy memories of it, but she remembers the small blue and white flowers that used to pepper the grassy patch. Some of the stray cats that inhabited the monastery used to roll around in the flowers, leaving broken stems and crushed petals in their wake.

She crouches down, picking up the wood slabs and checking their condition. Some are broken beyond repair, but the majority of them are good enough to be reused. She fetches some tools and extra wood from an empty classroom that has been turned into a storage area and begins to work.

Byleth has always enjoyed working with her hands. Despite never showing emotion on her face, she could express her emotions through her work, whether it be gratitude by mending a fence or love by picking flowers for Jeralt. She may not be very creative, but she would guess that she’s handier than a regular mercenary and maybe even the average professor. 

“Didn’t expect to find you here, Teach,” a familiar voice says from behind her.

She had heard his footsteps as she screwed two pieces of wood together, so she isn’t surprised. “I thought you were busy.”

“I was. I got what I needed, so I was taking a walk.” She sees him sit next to her out of the corner of her eye, his bright yellow clothing a pop of color against the gray stone floor. “You didn’t seem the type for DIY.”

“This isn’t that hard.” Byleth finally glances up at Claude’s face and is slightly surprised by the interest she sees there. It’s just a fence, but his eyes are on her hands.

“You have so many talents,” Claude says with a smile, picking up the hammer on the ground in front of her. He runs his hands over its cold metal head and Byleth can’t figure out what he’s thinking.

“My dad taught me,” she explains, handing him a nail and some wood. “Have you ever done anything like this before?”

Claude takes the proffered materials, looking at them with bemusement. “Not quite.”

“Not quite?” Byleth echoes, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly.

“Teach, a good schemer doesn’t reveal their secrets,” he laughs. Byleth likes the way his Adam’s apple bobs when he does so, her eyes following it up and down. “I’ve had to unscrew some things here and there.”

_Ah_. “So that’s why Lorenz’s seat collapsed,” Byleth hums, putting a finger to her cheek.

Claude starts, almost dropping the wood he holds. “You remember that?”

“It wasn’t that long ago for me.” Byleth’s voice is soft but she punctuates her statement by tossing aside a broken piece of wood, a loud clack resounding when it hits the cobblestone.

“I guess not.” Claude clears his throat. 

They work in comfortable silence, broken only by Byleth giving Claude instructions. It isn’t long before she hammers the final part of the fence into the ground, mismatched wood surrounding a brown patch of dry foliage.

“I feel accomplished, but I don’t really see the point in having put the fence back up,” Claude remarks as he looks down at their handiwork.

Byleth crouches back down and pulls out a handful of dead weeds, revealing a spot of green seedlings poking out of the dirt.

“We’re all aiming for a normal, peaceful life,” she says, smiling slightly at the new foliage.


End file.
